*The document is a plan for the article "Playing at Parliamentarianism," published in *Proletarii* No. 48 of September 26 (45), 1905. (Coll. Vol. VIII, pp. 224-229.)*

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**18.**

**PRE-PARLIAMENTARIAN CRETINISM***

*[September 1905]*

1) Parl[iamentary] cr[etini]sm: M[arx] in 1848.
2) "Old h[ats]"2). *Forward* No. 1, Two tact[ics],— Parvus.
3) Evolution of P[arv]us: held out hopes for reform. A phrase3).
After January 9 — government worker[s]!! without the tsar3).
After August 6 — State D[uma] without uprising! 4)
4) Tom and Jerry in Parvus4).
Act[ive] boycott or deal?
5) "Agreement [of] liberals, democrats and soc[ial]dem[ocrats]"5).
6) Uprising for the defense of Milyukov!!!
7) "Our electoral comm[ittees]!
8) "Legal basis of polit[ical] p[arties]."
9) Candidates—pea-brained jesters or "standard-bearers"?
10) "Force" the liberal to be a rev[olutionary]!!
11) "The worse, the better" or "the more muddled, the better"6).
12) T[actics] of German s[ocial]d[emocracy] 1905 and 1848.
57 years. "They've become wiser."
13) "Bind [them] to determ[inate] political dem[ands]."
C[onfer] the resolution of the conf[erence]...
14) Ag[itation] and organiz[ation].
— not for uprising?
Cent[ral] slogan? ?

**PRE-PARLIAMENTARIAN CRETINISM**

**NB**
Uprising
15) Uprising — concrete slogan7).
[Proletariat] 1848 and 50.
Proletariat: 1869 and 1872.

*) Lenin's article "Playing at Parliamentarianism," like the plan printed here, is devoted to an analysis of Parvus's article "Social Democracy and the State Duma," which appeared first as a separate sheet and then in No. 110 of *Iskra*, September 23 (10), 1905. Individual points of the plan mark sequentially the contents of Parvus's article. "Parliamentary cretinism"—an expression to which Marx and Engels repeatedly resorted in their historical works. See, for example, p. 70 of Marx's brochure "The Eighteenth Brumaire," pub. by the Marx and Engels Institute, Giz 1926, or p. 314 of Engels's brochure "Revolution and Counter-revolution in Germany," Marx and Engels Works, Vol. III, Giz 1921.

2) "Old hats"—an expression of N. K. Mikhailovsky. Mikhailovsky mocked the tendency of Russian intellectuals to adopt from Europe what had already been abandoned as old-fashioned in Europe itself.

3) "Without the tsar and a workers' government!" cried Parvus under the impression of January 9. "Without the people and a liberal Duma!"—that is what his present "tactics" amount to after August 6. (Works, Vol. VIII, p. 227.)

4) Parvus in his article on the one hand ridiculed the boycott tactic, on the other—declared: "What is not given to workers voluntarily, they must take by force. They must appear in masses at electoral gatherings and transform them into workers' assemblies. Instead of discussions about whether to elect Ivan Fomich or Foma Ivanich, they will put political questions on the agenda."

5) Reference is made to Parvus's call for a formal "agreement" between parties. Parvus even speaks of the necessity of binding oneself by "joint political responsibility." (Works, Vol. VIII, p. 225.)

6) Parvus evaluated Lenin's tactics as anarchistic, allegedly guided by the principle "the worse, the better," while he himself wrote that if the Duma had legislative rights, that would be worse. (Ibid., p. 228.)

7) "For us, revolutionary social-democrats, uprising is not an absolute but a concrete slogan... we do not forget that Marx in 1848 was for uprising, while in 1850 he condemned the ravings and phrases about uprising." (Ibid., p. 223.)